A sealed indictment doesn’t trigger the 6th Amendment until it is actually unsealed and proceedings start. It would potentially toll the statute of limitations on any crime, and minimize the risk of some sort of equitable defense based on non-prosecution and the passage of time distinct from the 6th Amendment so it…

And a partridge in a pear tree.

The West Wing was a decent take on elements of the Clinton White House, with the sex scandal shifted to the VP. But the thing that is amazing is that a lot of people who claim to be fans of the show never pay attention to how often the administration got blindsided by stuff and had a pretty bad win/loss record overall…

But recall who wrote that opinion - Kennedy, the semi-woke libertarian who has since been replaced by a much more reactionary brand of conservative - of the kind who actually think these policies are creating “special rights”/distorting the “natural order” (i.e. whatever conservative straight men are comfortable with…

Interestingly there was a piece over the last week about Trump thinking about removing Pence because he and his inner circle are a) worried about Pence’s loyalty and b) have convinced themselves the Christian Right will stay with Trump regardless of who is on the ticket (based both on general polling and the lack of…

Marketing for one. The perceived and real issues of getting similar classes at traditional schools for another, especially at the junior/community college level. Perception is worse than reality, but a lot of people have experienced issues with fitting community college classes into their schedules - which means a lot…

The funny thing is hiring 1 undocumented (or at leas suspiciously documented) domestic worker used to be the kiss of doom for a public career - at least if you were a Democratic woman and the worker was a nanny/housekeeper.  But do it on an industrial scale and it has zero impact on your career, even for candidates…

Underline that this is about Bolton and his ego.  Haley is a lot of terrible things, but she wouldn’t let Bolton run over her the way Nauert will (or at least that’s the way I’m sure Bolton sees it today - in six months, I’m guessing he’ll hate her too).

Believe it or not, the Saudi’s lobbying firm actually defended what they did on the grounds they got a discount from the utterly outrageous “average” rate of more than $750 that was leaked earlier for Jan-Feb 2017 (impacted by inauguration surges and the absurd rates paid for suites and such). The longer article has a…

When the kids in Oregon first launched their lawsuit on similar grounds (namely that public policy has to consider who will be impacted most by inactivity on these issues) I was highly skeptical of their chances. I still am, frankly - but as a matter of political theory it absolutely should be our approach.

In addition to the constraints of the MRA, Members of the House can only have 18 paid staff and 4 part timers, including “interns receiving pay”, out of that fund at any time. Apparently the number was set back in 1975. Senators don’t have a hard number cap.

You basically just described law school, too - only the bar exam is designed to hammer the “try harder” types so they often don’t get the chance to show what they can actually do.

This is everywhere in public service that isn’t strongly protected by unions from what I’ve seen. Often with the same logic of how it is a stepping stone or “entry-level” but with no understanding of how student loan debt and rising costs of living have radically altered what people can afford/need to live on. State…

While accurate, you should see the freakout you get in rural areas at the idea of raising the minimum wage to even $12-15 an hour. In Oregon they had to create a multi-tiered minimum wage just to avoid a revolt - Portland gets $15, but not until 2022, most cities will go to the “standard” rate of 13.50 by then, but…

Firefighters and police are not in the same boat, by a long shot - because almost everywhere they have good unions that have protected their salaries for decades even as other industries have been eroded. Almost everywhere that you have a full time police department, the police will be some of the highest paid members…

While I’m sure they have plenty of receipts that show them billing hundreds of hours at top rates, I’m also betting a huge amount of that was for PR and case strategy sessions that isn’t recoverable because it isn’t tied to necessary legal work. This was decided on a motion to dismiss - meaning the actual work related…

My guess is in someone’s mind it is the difference between “learns and remembers the playbook” and “doesn’t talk back to authority/responds the way the coach wants in practice” - which can have racial overtones as well.

You generally have to be enrolled, but students at most schools are taking internships in DC as a semester worth of school, or doing it over break.  Some schools (Berkeley I know, but others exist too) actually have an extension in DC to facilitate internships and classes.  In theory UC Berkeley’s has you balance 3-4…

Zinke is hiding behind the fact that a woman made a hostile workplace complaint against Grijalva linked to his alleged drinking. The case was settled with a non-disclosure agreement and no admission of liability - for an amount you could consider a nuisance payment or reasonable severance package, especially in the…

Which appears to be about the only thing Trump got in the deal from his provocative threats as far as I can tell. The rest of the package is basically what Canada would have signed off on regardless of the approach - so all his yelling and raving did was prove (just like Helsinki and his meaningless summit with Kim…